CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Nowadays, skyscrapers have been a symbol of excellence and wealth of a country.

Burj Khalifa in Dubai have been identify as the world tallest building and this

recognization attract the tourist to witness themselve the wonderful of the

architectures. Tall building also important as a communication centre, such as KL

tower in Malaysia that have been known as communication centre for the nation.

When the rate of growth in a town increase, it affect the rate of population in that

area. Land become limited and makes people discomfort by dreaming of having a land

in town. Therefore, skyscrapers are built to save land space and can facilitate people
matter. Nowadays, skyscrapers had a space that made for office and services in a

building. So the consumer only need to use the services in it like Tabung Haji tower

in Kuala Lumpur which provides various services such as pilgrimage management,

zakat payer and more. Similarly with Shanghai Tower in China whereas the building

subdivided into five main functional area which is luxury hotel, office, entertainment,

cultural venues and conference facilities. Actually in Malaysia, there are various of

skyscrapers that are similar to this characteristic such as Petronas Twin Towers,

Telekom Tower, and Maybank Tower and this building managed to get the tourist

attention all over the world.

The wind flow plays an important role at pedestrian level, in the aspects of

thermal comfort [1-3], ventilation of city [4,5], public safety [6] and pollutants

spreading [5,7-9]. Recently, the wind comfort at pedestrian level has received large

numbers of attentions because of effectives achievement of the acceptable wind

environment by the skyscrapers in the urban areas [2,10-12]. With the aim of

evaluation, the pedestrian wind comfort, the wind comfort criterion, the

meteorological data, and the aerodynamic information should be combined. The

meteorological data are presented from the local weather stations and the aerodynamic

data can be attained from the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation [5-

7,12-14].

However, the engineering problems like pollutant dispersion in built

environments, wind load on buildings, and pedestrian wind discomfort has been

increasingly solved by using the Computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The CFD
results are depends on various of parameters and numerical conditions to produce the

best practical rules [15]. The drag force and drag coefficient also can be determine by

using CFD. Based on the fluid dynamics, the drag force is the force that act on a solid

body in the direction of fluid flow with comes from the differences in pressure and

viscosity and also velocity [11]. Therefore, the drag force divided into two engineering

mechanism which is frictional drag and pressure drag. The aerodynamic drag force,

FD is defined by the equation 1:

𝟏
FD= 𝟐⋅ ρ ⋅ CD . A . v 2 (Equation 1)

Where: ρ – The density of air, kg/m3 ;

A – The area that exposed to the wind, m2 ;

Cd – The drag coefficient under the wind action;

v – The speed of wind, m/s.

On the other hand, many researchers have reported that great modification of

the shape of the corners can create a better aerodynamic performance and pedestrian

comfort. Furthermore, low drag coefficient need to be emphasized in building

construction. This is because, it will affect the pedestrian and occupants comfort.
1.2 Problem statement

With the rapid growth of urbanization, there are many skyscrapers that

developed with various of shapes and design. Since these skyscrapers are usually

flexible and slender, the wind resistant design is often the primary concern in their

structural design. The aerodynamic optimization of building shapes must be

considered in architectural design to achieve in wind resistant design.

However, there are numbers of skyscrapers will affect the comfort of the

people around it. Human comfort at the pedestrian level will be disrupted when the

movement of the wind is too slow, approaching zero velocity during the occurrence of

wind flow separation. Next, moderated air flow occurred because of the numbers of

skyscrapers in cities. These contribute to poor wind velocity and thermal comfort

conditions that may eventually effect human health. In addition, the skyscrapers

tendency to blocks lower wind flow can causes lots of problem like haze formation

which results in stagnant air at pedestrian level. These skyscrapers may cause

uncomfortable due to wind conditions caused by these skyscrapers.

Therefore, the aerodynamics study of various skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur

will be investigated. The series of CFD will be conducted to obtain the best shape to

improve the comforts level for pedestrians and occupants. So the CFD conducted will

look into the region of flow velocity due to flow separation and also the drag

coefficient of each building.

1.3 Objectives

The objectives of this study are:

1.3.1 To understand the flow behavior of different shapes.

1.3.2 To obtain the optimized of skyscrapers in terms of drag coefficient and

occupants discomfort.

1.4 Scopes of work and limitations

The scope of the project research will be as a guideline to make sure this project will

be performed and completed within its intended objectives. The scopes of this research

are:

1.4.1 To investigate the various design of skyscrapers only in Kuala Lumpur.

1.4.2 To analyze building with height between 170-450m.

1.4.3 The study will be conducted by using Solidworks Flow Simulation.

1.4.4 To explore the effect on pedestrian and occupants comfort.

1.5 Overview of Thesis

The chapter’s outline of this thesis is properly arranged as to ease the readers to
understand this whole work of studies.

CHAPTER 1
Background study on aerodynamic study in various shapes and design of
skyscrapers, problem statement, the objectives, and the scope limitation of work to
be reach at the end of this study

CHAPTER 2
The study based on the knowledge gained from reading of the literature review on
skyscrapers will be explain in details in this chapter.

CHAPTER 3

The methodology used will be discussed in this chapter to ensure the objectives of
the study reached

CHAPTER 4

This chapter will shows the formula, result, and discussion obtained from the
simulation analysis

CHAPTER 5

The conclusion and recommendation for these studies are discussed in this chapter
based on previous results studies